Emanuel Bronner
| Emanuel Bronner | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Emanuel Theodor Heilbronner February 1, 1908 Heilbronn, Germany |
| Died | March 7, 1997 (aged 89) California |
| Nationality | German-American |
| Occupation | Soap maker, entrepreneur, philosopher |
| Known for | Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps |
Emanuel Theodore Bronner (born 
Emanuel Heilbronner , February 1, 1908 – March 7, 1997) was the maker of Dr. Bronner's Castile soap. He was a moral philosopher who used product labels to promote his ideas, including a belief in the goodness and unity of humanity.
Bronner was born in Heilbronn, Germany, to the Heilbronner family of soap makers. He emigrated to the United States in 1929, dropping "Heil" from his name because of its associations with Nazism. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1936. As the family was Jewish, he pleaded with his parents to emigrate with him for fear of the then-ascendant Nazi Party, but they refused. His last contact with his parents was in the form of a censored postcard saying, "You were right. —Your loving father." His parents died in the Holocaust.
He started his business making products by hand in his home. The product labels are crowded with statements of Bronner's philosophy, which he called "All-One-God-Faith" and the "Moral ABC". Many of Bronner's references came from Jewish and Christian sources, such as the Shema and the Beatitudes; others from writers such as Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Paine. On his labels he referred to the Jewish sage Hillel the Elder as "Rabbi Hillel" and to Jesus Christ as "Rabbi Jesus." The labels became famous for their idiosyncratic style, including hyphens to join long strings of words and the liberal use of exclamation marks.
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